ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

Environmental law

Environmental law

Introduction

In the United States the environmental agenda faced indifference or hostility from Republican administrations starting with Ronald Reagan in 1980 and culminating with George W. Bush. By contrast, environmental law reform has enjoyed a renaissance in the European Union over the past two decades. Even in innovative jurisdictions, a large gap is growing between current environmental performance and ecological sustainability. The countries with the best environmental records are not necessarily those with the most sophisticated environmental laws; rather, they include nations that have rejected industrial capitalism (Cuba, for example) or pursued different development policies (such as Costa Rica). Nearly every country is living beyond its means: the world's average human eco-footprint is about 2.3 ha, even though there are only 1.9 ha of productive land and water per person on Earth.

In 2005, the Board of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment warned that human activity is putting such strain on the natural functions of the Earth that the ability of the planets ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted. Innumerable other international studies have echoed this view, including the International Union for the Conservation of Natures annual Red List of Threatened Species, and United Nations Environment Programmes periodic Global Environment Outlook reports. Something is badly wrong, and a deeper critique of environmental law and policy is needed.

In many respects, environmental law can be considered a damp squib. Many environmental problems have worsened despite the vast ensemble of regulations introduced in most countries in recent decades. We continue to edge closer to the precipice of an anthropogenic collapse in planetary ecological systems. Species are disappearing up to one thousand times faster than they did in pre-human times. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is at its highest level in some 650,000 years, and rising rapidly (Wood, Tanner & Richardson, 2010). Coinciding with these trends is the soaring human population and rampant economic growth; in the twentieth century the world's population quadrupled and the world economy grew by a factor of thirteen.

The paper will attempt to describe the “environmental law system,” and the key philosophical, political, and economic issues which have and are molding the “environmental law system” today. Following this, the paper will describe and flowchart the process of enacting or modifying an environmental law; by bringing into use a specific law and its history. The paper also compared and contrasted the roles of key government agencies involved in the development, interpretation, recommendation, enforcement and management of environmental policies, including but not limited to the Congress, EPA, OSHA, OSHRC, ATSDR, NIOSH and the Courts. Using specific examples, the discussion will compare and contrast the use of administrative and civil actions verses criminal penalties by environmental enforcement agencies as a management tool for the protection of the environment and the American worker.

The discussion will also ascertain how the major environmental laws interact with workplace safety and health and continued to develop an understanding of the legislative framework of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Ong, ...